


Endless Summer, Chapter 4/44 - Cut and run

by 9k4



Series: The Endless Summer Story [4]
Category: Endless Summer (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M, M/M, The Endless Summer Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 10:09:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15022322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/9k4/pseuds/9k4





	Endless Summer, Chapter 4/44 - Cut and run

Unsure about how to deal with the tiger, my friends and I started to back away slowly towards the entrance.

I hated to leave the fox to certain death, but sadly, unfortunately, it didn’t seem like we had any alternative that included us surviving too.

“Nice kitty… nice kitty…” Jake repeated, as if the tiger could be reasoned with.

“This  _cannot_ be happening!” said a panicked Aleister. “This makes  _no_ logical sense!”

“Yeah? You wanna tell  _it_ that?!” Diego rhetorically asked him.

The fox managed to run past the tiger and sprinted to me, climbing up my back, shivering with fear.

“Oh no…  _oh no…”_  said Quinn, who was next to me, also shivering with fear, maybe even more so than the fox.

The tiger turned to face us and glared at me, obviously recognising me from the pool party. He loomed closer towards Quinn and I, which caused adrenaline to kick in.

“Get behind me!” I ordered Quinn, stepping in between her and the tiger.

The tiger growled softly and slashed at me with his claw, gashing my side!

“Taylor!” Quinn gasped, catching me before I fell to the ground.

“I’m okay, it’s not deep.” I told her, although I could tell from the blood that I was  _definitely_ not ‘okay’.

Meanwhile, the tiger took the opportunity to move in front of the entrance, blocking our exit.

“There’s no way we can get past this thing!” Lila spoke up. “We have to find another way out!”

“There’s a blast door at the far end of the shelter, which leads into a hallway!” Diego observed.

“That’s our only way out.” I decided, quickly, figuring no-one else could come up with a better solution.

It was then that I noticed there was a fire extinguisher a few metres to the right of me.

I grabbed it and sprayed the tiger’s face with freezing cold gas, blinding him momentarily!

We used the brief distraction to make a run for the blast door. Lila was the last one to make it, barely beating the tiger.

We rushed to slam the blast door shut, leaving the tiger behind, but us in the dark.

“Thanks, Taylor.” Lila thanked me. “That tiger would’ve gotten me if it wasn’t for your quick thinking.”

“Yeah.” Jake agreed. “Way to not get us all shish-kebab’d on those teeth.”

I suddenly winced, and had to sit down against a wall. Now that the adrenaline had faded, the pain caused by my wound had returned.

The fox and Quinn, both sensing my pain, came up to me. The fox nuzzled against me, and Quinn tore off a piece of her shirt and used it to bandage me.

“Thank you, Taylor, for protecting me back there.” Quinn thanked me.

“Of course, Quinn-” I started, but Quinn placed a soft finger over my mouth to silence me.

“But please don’t risk your life for mine.” she asked me, looking slightly despondent. “I’m… I’m not worth it.”

“Does someone wanna tell me what the  _hell_ that thing was?” Diego asked us.

“Isn’t obvious? A smilodon fatalis.” Aleister replied.

“A what in the who now?” Jake asked him, earning an impatient sigh from Aleister.

“…a sabertooth tiger.”

“Oh yeah,  _totally_ obvious.” Jake snapped. “I must’ve forgotten my spear and loincloth back in my cave, because apparently it’s 10,000 B.C.”

“Sabertooth tigers have been extinct for a long time, so that one must’ve been… cloned?” Quinn suggested.

“Of course not.” replied Aleister, incredulously. “Rourke International is in dozens of industries, but cloning is not one of them.”

“I’m sorry, Aleister, but why are we not discussing the fact that this holiday just turned into real-life Jurassic park?” asked Diego.

“A sabertooth tiger would make this the Pleistocene, not Jurassic, era.” replied Aleister, failing to disguise his anger at Diego’s comment. “Congratulations, Diego, you’re only - at the very least - 142 million years off.”

“Seriously, Malfoy?” said Jake, referencing Aleister’s white hair and snobby attitude.  _“That’s_  what you think is important here?”

“Yeah, Aleister, focus on the real problem here.” I agreed with Jake. “Who cares when sabertooths were around? Especially at a time like this?”

“I’m simply suggesting we use our intellect to accomplish something, instead of running around aimlessly like scared animals, such as our new  _blue_ foxy friend.” said Aleister.

“And  _I’m_  suggesting we use it to survive now, and ask questions later.” I replied back.

“I’m with boy scout.” Jake backed me up. “I should have enough fuel to make it back to the mainland.”

“The mainland?” asked a confused Aleister. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re leaving the island?” I asked Jake.

“Yeah.” he replied. “Come with me, or wait here and risk death for a rescue that may never come. I’m not going to become that tiger’s dinner…  _or yours!”_

At this, Jake pointed accusingly at the fox, who had climbed down from my back and was sitting on the floor.

He looked at Jake, wide-eyed and clearly frightened still. This didn’t deter Jake, however.

“That’s right, you can’t play cute with me, bud. God knows what you are, and quite frankly I don’t intend to be here when we find out.”

“Let’s not overreact, Jake. We’ll be perfectly safe as soon as we get back to The Celestial.” Lila tried to convince him to stay. “I’m sure everything will be fine as soon as-”

“As soon as everyone magically reappears?” Jake interrupted. “As soon as the staff round up all the  _prehistoric predators?_ I don’t know what circus you think you’re running here, dimples, but this island ain’t safe.”

“And flying with  _you_  is? You nearly crashed the plane on the way here.” Aleister pointed out.

Jake looked at him and hesitated, as if he were thinking back to a bad flying experience he once had… but then shook his head determinedly.

“I’ll take my chances.”

“What about your money? You haven’t found Carlos yet.” I reminded him.

Jake smiled. “Boy scout, I’ve done enough gambling to know when it’s time to cut and run.”

I hesitated for a few seconds… and then nodded. The risk was too great.

“You’re right.” I decided. “We need to get back home. This place is too crazy.”

“Taylor,  _please!_ ” Lila pleaded with me, her eyes glistening.  _“Everything_  will be fine once we get back to The Celestial. I’m sure of it.”

“I’m glad to see boy scout has his head screwed on straight.” Jake patted me on the back, probably a bit harder than he meant.

“I’ve always wanted an adventure… but maybe the truth is I’m not meant for it.” mused Diego.

“I know.” added Quinn. “I had a vision of how this week would go, and this wasn’t it.”

“Very well.” Aleister sighed. “We may depart.”

Lila turned to Jake and scowled.

“Jake, I  _cannot_  let you leave. I have a responsibility to my superiors-“

“To who?” Jake interupted her. “To Everett freakin’ Rourke?

“Rourke isn’t here, Lila.” I pointed out. “He’s not the one who’s life is on the line - that’s us. His paradise is falling apart, and this isn’t your job anymore.”

Lila turned away, clearly uncomfortable at the though of disobeying Rourke.

After a few seconds, however, she met my gaze, her eyes still glistening.

“Okay.” she decided. “W-we can leave.”

“Alright, the plan is to get out of here, grab the others from the resort and head back to the airstrip.” Jake announced, sounding rather proud of himself.

“We’d better hope there’s another exit, because that sabertooth isn’t giving up.” I added.

As if he could hear me, the sabertooth started growling.

We strolled through the corridors, looking out for signs of an exit.

The fox was jogging excitingly, scampering along beside me.

Jake seemed disturbed by this. “Is that  _thing_  just gonna follow us around now?” he asked me.

I shrugged.

“He seems to like Taylor!” Quinn pointed out, as the fox jumped back onto my back.

Jake sighed. He was clearly skeptical about the fox (I admit to some extent I was too), but he knew we wouldn’t budge. The fox was now a companion.

Eventually we passed a carving in the wall. I ran my fingers through it’s many grooves.

“This looks like it’s some sort of three-headed dragon? Like a Hydra?” I guessed.

“Can I see?” Lila asked me, to which I nodded and stepped out of the way.

“It could just be a bored employee who carved the wall…” Lila pushed against the wall as she said this, softly, but with enough force to cause the wall to shudder suddenly!

“Woah!” said a startled Diego. “Check it out! That section of the wall got pushed in a bit!”

Aleister stepped forward, examing the carving and the surrounding wall.

“It’s the outline of a door! Which means there could be a passage behind this section of the wall that could lead us out of here.” Aleister concluded.

Jake pushed as hard as he could against the hidden door, but to no use.

“I can’t do it!” he growled. “There’s  _gotta_  be another way to open it.”

I scanned the area, hoping to find a way to unlock the hidden door and I found a wheel valve on a pipe.

“There’s a wheel valve here on this pipe!” I told the others. “It could be the key to opening the door, but it’s chained tight.”

“That chain’s made out of some pretty sturdy material.” Jake observed. “I still have the fire extinguisher, though, which could help.”

Aleister took the fire extinguisher and sprayed the chain.

“CO2 fire extingusihers release gas at drastic sub-zero temperatures.” he told us, his voice dripping with narcissism. “So when the chain gets brittle enough…”

Aleister then bashed the chain with the fire extinguisher, shattering the chain and freeing the valve.

Jake and I span the valve, and after a few moments, we all started to hear gears moving deep within the wall.

The hidden door unlocked and, upon its opening, revealed a small office with computer monitors on a large desk and folders stacked on poorly constructed shelfs.

A computer monitor in the middle of the desk which showed camera footage of four different rooms in The Celestial caught Lila’s eye.

“We could use this computer to communicate with the students back at The Celestial and tell them to meet us at the airstrip!” she suggested, cheerily.

“It’s our best shot.” I agreed.

I sat down at the desk and grabbed the computer mouse, only to be greeted by the following message when I tried to click on camera footage of the lobby (which showed Raj fast asleep in one of the massage chairs):

ENTER PASSWORD FOR MICROPHONE ACCESS. HINT:  _Ram, Scorpion, Bull, Lion, 4/12, 6 letters_

I stared at the password hint, running through different possibilities in my mind. Most of the ideas I had, though, weren’t 6 letters long.

“They’re all… animals?” I guessed, typing in ‘Animal’.

INCORRECT PASSWORD.

 _“Seriously?!”_ snapped Jake, who was looking over my shoulder. “They’re all animals!”

“There’s got to be something else they all have in common…” I mused.

4/12… what could that mean in relation to animals?

“Let me try something.” said Diego.

He leant over my other shoulder and typed in ‘Zodiac’.

CORRECT PASSWORD. MICROPHONE ACCESS GRANTED.

“Aries, Scorpio, Taurus and Leo - they’re all Zodiac signs!” explained Diego. “And the 4/12 refers to them being 4 of the 12 Zodiac signs.”

“Thanks, Diego.” I thanked him, slightly embarrassed that the others thought of me (somewhat) as a leader and I had to rely on him for us to be able to communicate with the others.

I grabbed the microphone in order to get Raj’s attention… when suddenly I had an idea. I smiled mischievously and, instead of simply just saying hello, I made my voice sound like that of a ghost’s.

“Rrraaaaaajjj…” I said in a haunting voice, earning laughs from Diego and Jake, but a stern glare from Aleister. “This is the ghost of The Celessstialll!”

Raj snapped awake and fell out of his massage chair.

“Oh man, not  _this_ trip again.” he complained.

Zahra and Craig had entered the lobby and were approaching Raj, laughing uncontrollably.

“Yo, Taylor, is that you on the speakers?” asked Craig. “That  _was hilarious!”_

“Yeah.” agreed Zahra, who was laughing so hard she had to wipe away tears of joy. “I  _love_ humour at the expense of others.”

“Wait, that was Taylor?” Raj asked Zahra and Craig. They nodded and he, too, started to laugh. “Ok, I’ll admit it, that was pretty good.”

I explained the situation to them, as well as our plan to leave La Huerta.

“Is this another prank, Taylor?” Zahra asked me. “Because it isn’t funny this time.”

“It’s not a prank.” Jake assured her. “We’re going straight to the airstrip.”

“Get the others and meet us there.” I told them.

“You’re leaving?!  _What the hell?!”_  remarked Craig. “This is our  _holiday,_ dude. Forget  _that!”_

“Craig, please trust me-” I started.

“Trust you?” Craig interrupted me. “I don’t know you, and you don’t know me. Why are you trying to ruin everything?”

Craig stormed off angrily, disappearing from view, leaving me baffled - did he not care that we could’ve been  _killed_ by the sabertooth tiger? Did he not appreciate that I was trying to look out for the group? For our safety?

Clearly, it wasn’t safe here. Our priority had to be our safety.

Raj saw my expression and sighed. “Don’t worry, Taylor. I’ll talk to him. We’ll be there soon, all of us.”

I nodded, thankful that Raj, at least, was taking this seriously.

“Right, now we need to find a way out of here.” I told the group at the shelter. “Maybe the folders can show us a way out, if there’s one that has a map of the shelter.”

“Good idea, Taylor!” said Quinn, eagerly taking a massive folder labelled  _Island Maps_ off a shelf.

“There are  _hundreds_  of maps in here, Taylor.” Diego complained. “It’ll take  _ages_ for us to look through all of them.”

“Then divide them between you five. You’ll find  _something_ that’ll help us.” I assured him. “In the meantime I’ll look through this computer and see if there’s anything else I can find.”

They all nodded solemnly and got to work, looking through hundreds of maps of La Huerta and all it’s buildings.

Meanwhile, I looked through the computer, but couldn’t find anything except camera footage of all the different rooms in The Celestial.

There were cameras in places such as the restaurant and lobby, which I could understand - but the  _bathrooms?_ I understand that some people like being watched, but that was creepy.

After about fifteen minutes, I was about to stop and help the others look through the maps, but that’s when I heard it - “He won’t, mum. I promise.”

I looked through the camera footage quickly and found Estela alone in the ballroom, in front of a painting of a sailboat beneath a night sky, which had been cut open. She was holding a pocket knife in her right hand, and holding a note in her left hand (which for some reason had probably been hidden behind that painting) which she was reading.

The image was fuzzy, but I thought I saw a pained expression on her face, which was unusual, given that Estela didn’t seem like the kind of person who would be easily upset by anything.

“Boy scout! Hate to alarm you, but… we haven’t found anything in this folder.”

Jake’s announcement brought me back to reality. I stepped away from the computer and went over to the group.

“There  _has_ to be something here.” I said.

“Oh yes.” snapped Aleister. “I’m pretty sure that, if we try  _real_ hard, we can find something-”

Before I said something to Aleister that I’d come to regret, the fox had jumped up onto a shelf and grabbed a relatively small folder labelled  _Shelter - Confidential Files_ with his teeth and pulled!

It fell and hit the floor. When I picked it up, surely enough, there was a map of the shelter.

“Yes!” smiled Quinn. “The clever little fox found the way out!”

“Wait…” managed a baffled Jake. “Does this mean Vulpix here understands English?”

He knelt down and looked the fox in the eyes. “That stuff I said before, about not trusting you… I didn’t  _really_ mean it, okay? I take it back!”

The fox smiled and nuzzled against Jake. He nervously laughed and patted the fox.

Meanwhile, Quinn had picked up the map of the shelter, and held it up for us all to see, and thankfully, it showed a clear way out through a cave, which conveniently lead us to the airstrip.

“If that map’s accurate, then we should be at the airstrip in about 30 minutes!” Lila concluded.

“Let’s go then!” I lead the way out of the room and through the shelter.

We followed the corridors the way the mapped showed us.

Eventually, we arrived at the cave that was so dark, we had to link hands to make sure we didn’t lose each other.

We could hear splashing underfoot.

“Uh… are we standing in  _water?”_ I asked the others.

“Dammit!” Jake muttered. “Cave’s flooded. Dead end.”

“Maybe not!” said Quinn, pointing at a faint spot of light at the bottom of the water. “Look at that!”

“It looks like… daylight, coming up through the water.” Lila observed.

“That means there’s an underwater tunnel leading to the outside of the cave.” I concluded. “We swim through, and we’ll reach the area the map pointed out.”

“Swim?! You may leave me here, thank you very much.” Of course Aleister disagreed with my plan. “Let my father know I hated him.”

“Come here, Malfoy!” said Jake, grabbing Aleister. “I’ll drag you out myself!”

Before Aleister could protest, Jake had dived under, pulling Aleister with him. Lila, Quinn, Diego, the fox and I followed them.

About a minute later, we re-surfaced at the mouth of the ocean cave.

I swam over to the beach, grateful we were back outside.

The others were busy drying off. As I approached them, I counted them off to check if everyone was still with us, and my blood went cold as I realised something horrible…

“Guys…  _where’s Quinn?”_


End file.
